Defense attorney: Florida boot camp beating 'a day at office'

Outsiders cannot understand the "paramilitary" environment required at a now-closed Florida boot camp where seven guards allegedly repeatedly hit a 14-year-old boy hours before his death, a defense attorney said Monday at their manslaughter trial.

The 2006 incident was part of "a day at the office" for the drill instructors and a nurse, Walter Smith told jurors.

The videotaped altercation sparked national outrage and forced the closure of Florida's juvenile boot camp system. Martin died on Jan. 6, 2006, a day after the 30-minute videotaped incident at the Panama City boot camp run by the Bay County sheriff's office and overseen by the state.

Prosecutors say the guards suffocated Anderson by covering his mouth and forcing him to inhale ammonia fumes. He had collapsed after running laps.

The guards saw Anderson not as a 14-year-old child, but as "a 6-foot (1.83-meter), 168-pound (76.2-kilogram), adult felon," Smith said. He had been sent to the camp for a probation violation after trespassing at a school and stealing his grandmother's car from a church parking lot.

Smith, who represents guard Charles Enfinger, said Anderson's file had been marked with a red dot _ the highest of three level of offenders _ indicating the he had the potential for violence.

"These are not rogue officers who are trying to punish a kid," he said. "Nobody is going to say that those hammer strikes or knee strikes were unlawful, they were strictly according to procedure."

Defense attorneys maintain that Anderson's death was unavoidable because he had undiagnosed sickle cell trait, a genetic blood disorder. The usually benign disorder can cause blood cells to shrivel into a sickle shape and limit their ability to carry oxygen under physical stress.

The former commander of the boot camp detailed the policy for handling an inmate who did not follow an order. The procedure includes securing the youth against a fence and applying pressure with the thumb to he back of the head, until the youth unclenches his fist, Michael Thompson said. Guards say Anderson kept his fist clenched during the incident.

"If the fists stay clenched, he is choosing to disobey an order," Thompson testified. "The use of force is going to be stepped up," he said. He testified that guards are trained to use the least amount of force necessary.

Thompson, who worked at the camp since its opening in 1994, said he was not aware that nurse Kristin Schmidt distributed ammonia capsules to each of the guards who worked on the exercise field.

Earlier Monday, prosecutors rested their case after the chief medical director for Florida's Department of Juvenile Justice testified that Schmidt, who stood by during the altercation, did not tell her supervisors that the teen was struck and forced to inhale ammonia.

Smith said later that camp employees did not consider ammonia tablets as a use of force against the offenders, so they did not find it necessary to put that in their reports.